Month: May 2026

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Holding Space for the “Ands” – Dancing Slowly Through Life:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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Music is one of my greatest lifelines, and moving my body to the songs I love is a kind of euphoria I never want to lose.

Last night, knowing my spinal challenges and Lupus required care, I still got lost in the music—“Hurts So Good” (pun intended). I stood up beside Dan at the restaurant table and began to move with joy and exhilaration…and belting out the lyrics. 🙂

He gently put his arm around my waist and said, “Please be careful… you don’t really want to ‘hurt so good.”

And…he was right.

Afterwards when I got home, I lay awake convinced I might have re-fractured my spine. I even considered going to the ER. Thankfully, this morning I can breathe again—literally—and my body is okay.

And…lesson taken to heart.

It is frustrating at times, learning to honor a body that has changed. I can’t dance the way I once did. And…I am deeply grateful that I can walk with ease, work, and share life with the people I love.

I am holding space for the “ands” in my life.

I have limitations, and I still live a full, meaningful life in a body that has carried me through illness, addiction, heartbreak, loss, and even seasons when my spirit felt broken.

Life looks different now—but the “ands” remind me it is never black and white. There is so much life in the shades of gray.

I can still dance—more gently. I can still sing at the top of my lungs. I can still feel the music “move me”, experience nature, and words deeply, in ways that honor who I am today. I can still feel the euphoria when my grandchildren shriek with joy simply by being in my presence—just as I am.

I embrace the challenges and the experiences that bring me deeper self-awareness in my aging body, uncovering new strengths and resilience as I live into this evolving version of my life.

And that, too, is exhilarating.

It really is about how we choose to embrace change…and, choosing new perspectives.

We create the trajectory of our new normal.

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

The Beauty of Friendship and Companionship:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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Although we both live with our “one and only forever loves” deep within our souls, we enjoy a close friendship…laughing, talking, walking, dancing, hugging, eating… sharing. Tenderness. And it is a pleasure-filled space with ease, grace, emotional maturity, and pure joy. We meet each other exactly where we are with absolutely no expectations.

Last night, we realized our friendship has been growing organically for a year…a friendship based on mutual understanding, similar interests, spiritual practices, like-minded values, emotional maturity, truly caring about each other and our hearts, and respecting the forever loves we each carry in different ways—through loss, distance, and the passage of time… the forever loves that remain in our souls, though no longer beside us on life’s path.

There can be great beauty in companionship that is warm, attentive, emotionally safe, and deeply fulfilling. Perhaps at this stage of life, some of the most meaningful relationships are not the ones that promise forever… but the ones that bring tenderness, presence, ease, and aliveness into the days we are living right now.

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

May is Mental Health Awareness Month – Depression Is A Mental Health Disorder – Love, Wendy

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Please be mindful of your words and language…

Things not to say to someone who is depressed:

“It will pass.”
“Just forget about it.”
“Other people have it worse.”
“Just think positive.”
“You have so much to be grateful for.”

Depression is not weakness, negativity, or lack of gratitude.
It is emotional pain that deserves compassion, patience, support, and empathy.
It IS a mental health disorder.
It IS diagnosable and treatable.

Sometimes the most healing words are simply…
“I’m here.”
“You matter.”
“You don’t have to carry this alone.”
“I can see how difficult this is for you. How can I help?”

AND…

“I can help you find the proper resources if you are open to it.”

All a person needs who is living with depression is to know that one other person cares.

I am a trained mental health specialist, educator and consultant in Mental Health First Aid, Suicide Safety for Schools, Trauma Informed Care, De-Escalation, Conflict Resolution, Motivational Interviewing, Spiritual Wellness, Mental Health and Wellness, to name a few…

Even I, a well trained mental health professional, live with bouts of depression and need support.

It is the greatest form of love and friendship.

To learn more about depression, go to https://www.nami.org

You can also contact your local Mental Health Association for free support.

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Boundaries:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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Even the most loving and compassionate people have their limits…

It’s called boundaries.

One of the greatest acts of self care is to quietly remove yourself from situations and people that repeatedly and purposefully disrespect your soul, negatively impact your mental health, and hurt your heart.

Self care is the actions that we take to achieve wellness…and wellness is where we stand in our power.

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Life Lessons:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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Three important things life has taught me…

Silence…is discipline.

True wealth is needing less. 

An idle mind ages progressively. 

So…think before you speak. Ask yourself if your words will be productive.

Then, take inventory of your blessings and practice gratitude. “Less IS more.”

Finally, stay active. Read. Engage your mind with culture, good people, and curiosity.

Keep learning.

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Still Rolling Stones:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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Finding a new love does not mean that we seek to replace or forget our old love. Both can exist simultaneously…and both can exist separately in what they represent, and offer, to a relationship in a healthy way.

A new love does not erase the meaning, history, or imprint of a previous love. Human hearts are expansive enough to hold grief, memory, affection, longing, gratitude, and new connection at the same time.

An old love may represent:

shared history
deep familiarity
spiritual lessons
family
deep passion
unfinished emotion
a chapter of who we once were

A new love may represent:

safety
growth
reciprocity
peace
emotional maturity
companionship
possibility

Those realities can coexist without diminishing one another. The important distinction is whether the past is being honored versus unconsciously recreated, clung to, or used to avoid intimacy in the present.

Loving again does not invalidate what came before. And remembering an old love does not make a new love second best…

In fact, depending upon one’s openness to new experiences with a new partner…

It can be as fulfilling…if not more fulfilling than what we once experienced.

It is all about perspective and willingness to “live again…”

“Still Rolling Stones…”

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Another One-Blessings:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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Whether you honor and pray to the Universe, to Angels, to Spirit, to Source, to God, or to anything else that resonates…some spiritual signs are undeniable…

When you are spiritually attentive and open to communication, you can experience spiritual orchestration… a “sequence,” not isolated moments, but symbolic communication arriving through timing, music, numbers, and emotional resonance. Signs unfold one after another in a way that feels deeply coherent to my inner GPS.

For me today, it looked like:
miracle -> praise -> reflection -> love -> grace -> my deceased father/spirit.

This was presented and received as a spiritually intelligent pattern. I often receive messages and meaning through synchronicity and events that chill my nervous system… or heat it up.

I feel transformation emerging in someone I love.

My own transformation began 14 years ago so that I could become a conduit for others to transform.

“Another one is on its way.”

“Miracle after miracle, open door after open door, here it comes, so get ready for another one ‘cause another one is on its way.

“And if He told the bones, come alive and they did,
He will again.
And if He told the stone, roll away, and it did, He will again,
And if He told the grave, let him go, and it did,
He will again.

Another one is on the way…”

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Bloom:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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You cannot love someone into readiness, clarity, forgiveness, or mutuality…And cryptic messages are not endearing…

The emotionally intelligent thing to do is to stop editing the pain into polished language and simply let yourself feel the enormity of it without turning it into a conclusion.

It becomes exhausting trying to carry the full emotional weight while also being cast in a fixed role inside someone else’s unresolved story.

This is THEIR weight to carry and perhaps one day…they will unload the unnecessary baggage or even ask you to help them carry what has been weighing them down and free them from their skewed perception.

Until then…LIVE your life.

They are living theirs.

They will either find their own way…

Or not.

Love,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Grace over Fear:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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Recent neuroscience research at USC found that when deeply held beliefs are challenged, the brain activates the same threat-detection regions used in moments of physical danger. In other words, the brain can experience an attack on identity as a threat to survival itself. That’s why simply telling people to “be more open-minded” is rarely effective; defensive reactions often occur beneath conscious awareness. Those who struggle most with change are often not the least intelligent, but the most deeply invested in a particular identity, expertise, or worldview. When long-held foundations shift, it can feel less like learning something new and more like defending one’s very sense of self.

Perhaps true growth begins when we stop seeing change as a threat to our identity and start recognizing it as an invitation to deepen ourselves as we go within to explore and to discover and to evolve…and to deepen humanity. I have had to release many identities throughout my life — wife, the woman lost in addiction, even the version of myself who believed she had to suffer in silence to survive. What remains is something far more meaningful: a mother, a teacher, a woman in long term recovery, and a human being continually learning how to evolve with grace rather than fear.

Grace grounds us in what remains when everything else shifts—our capacity to stay present, to soften instead of resist, and to trust that even in change, we are still becoming whole.

Love and blessings,

Wendy

BOOK, Harmonious Health 4 Life, Soul Notes, Write Pray Recover

Match the Energy:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy

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I will match your energy…Period.

There is never any good reason to deplete your energy for any person, regardless of who they are, or any situation that leaves you feeling drained and exhausted.

Your energy IS your fuel…

Burn it wisely.

I have found that meeting people where they are conserves my energy.

And the hard truth is that if you are truly doing your best…doing more will NEVER be enough.

#truestory

Love and blessings,

Wendy